Beamish Museum – Aerial Views of the 1900s Town and the Emerging 1950s

Beamish Museum has grown into one of the most important open-air museums in the country, preserving and celebrating everyday life in the North East across several eras. The 1900s Town is perhaps the most iconic part of the site — a carefully reconstructed Edwardian high street built from original buildings relocated and restored here. From the bank and bakery to the terraced homes and traditional pub, it captures an era when coal powered everything and community life revolved around tight-knit streets and local trade.

From the air, the sense of scale becomes clear. The curved line of the railway, the cluster of stone buildings, and the neat grid of terraces stand out against the green Durham countryside. Just beyond them, the developing 1950s Town marks the next chapter in Beamish’s story — a celebration of post-war life, new housing, corner shops and changing social habits. Together, the two areas tell a powerful story of how the region grew, adapted and modernised across the first half of the twentieth century.

Capturing both eras in a single view gives a fresh appreciation of the museum’s ambition: preserving the familiar, the ordinary and the everyday, so that future generations can understand the lives that shaped the North East.